Wednesday, 11 October 2017

Samsung Galaxy S9 to get the entire first batch of Snapdragon 845 chips for its early launch

In August we heard
that Samsung bought up almost all available Snapdragon 845 chips from Qualcomm
for its Galaxy S9 and S9+ duo. Today a new report basically confirms that the
entire first production run of the new chipset will be sold to Samsung for its
S9 phones.

The S9 and S9+ with
the Snapdragon 845 inside are destined for the US market, unsurprisingly. Other
smartphone makers will get access to the 845 at a later point compared to Samsung,
which will thus once again have a time-to-market advantage over its competitors
from this point of view.

Basically the same thing that's described
here has happened this year with the S8 duo and the Snapdragon 835. Samsung
buying up all available units of that chip forced LG to use the older
Snapdragon 821 in its G6, while other companies simply postponed their flagship
launches by a few months in order to ensure a decent supply of 835s.

The same source also claims that the S9 duo
will be launching a month earlier than usual, which means we can expect them to
be in stores in mid-March. If this is true, then an announcement at MWC in late
February seems likely. Obviously do take all of the above with a pinch of salt,
it's just another rumor at the moment - though it does confirm earlier
mumblings, for what it's worth.